"Emil, Kaja!" Anna shouted, dragged away by Tarhos from the horde of undead.

  Veredi and Anna were cut off just like the rest. The woman saw her children run terrified, her heart rumbling because of it. She didn't want to lose her children so much that she was ready to run into them in the middle of the horde, but there was Tarhos on the scene with a cool head, who dissuaded her from doing so. However, even Tarhos began to panic the moment Aurora disappeared from his sight. He couldn't see her, though he tried. He was probably the last person thinking in any rational way, and he had to make a difficult decision. He trusted his daughter, having trained her for years. There was no way she was going to die in the jaws of the dead considering the fact that the last time he saw her, Aurora was next to Dawid, who had already managed to put on a good show in the Hungarian's eyes.

  "We have to run!" He nervously begged her to run.

  "But the children-"

  "We will find them!" he pulled Anna hard enough that she was forced to follow him.

  They ran without stopping. Tarhos had no idea where he was running to, but he had to. He felt terrible leaving Aurora, but there was no other choice. Fighting the horde is suicide and he was in no hurry to the grave.

  Aside from isolated houses that were unsuitable for defense, there was nothing in the area east of the village. Moving far enough away, Tarhos's hair grew straggly when one sound did not quiet down at all and in fact grew louder. The sound of footsteps. Faster and faster with each passing second. He turned around momentarily letting out a silent scream of terror. Running after them was a zombie, the same one that had murdered Judyta a second ago. He was one step away from the survivors. At one point he dashed forward like a wild animal knocking a man to the ground. He squirmed, his jaws trying to get at Veredi. Anna froze, seeing the man desperately fighting for his life. The corpse was unheard of for a corpse, Tarhos could barely handle it. The woman stood still completely paralyzed with fear. She watched the struggles of Tarhos, who, wrestling with the corpse, managed to grab its head in a swift motion and wring its neck. It didn't help much except that it allowed him to nail the corpse to the ground. He stood up quickly, feeling the dead man's breath on his neck. There was no time to kill him so, continuing to hold the undead motionless, with a strong kick he broke his leg to at least slow him down a little.He then began to run, shouting to Anna. The corpse unmoved got up wanting to run after them, but the damaged bone effectively prevented him from running smoothly. They were reasonably safe as only one runner was spotted in the entire horde, none of the others acting strangely. They moved away from the dead as long as they had the opportunity and energy. Anna finally got her emotions under control, at least for a moment, and led Tarhos. To their misfortune, they were completely defenseless in the situation because the only weapon Veredi was wielding fell out while struggling with the horde. They headed along the DW615 road further east. The men had no fear of corpses at a safe distance, making sure at the time that none would somehow start running, although the paranoia that was getting to them forced them to glance back at times anyway.

  It has been a long time since the escape, the route from the lost village to the nearest civilization is about an hour on foot assuming a slow pace. Tarhos and Anna actually walked faster to increase the distance and possibly lose the zombies, and were largely successful. The corpses were not very intelligent, the quietest rustling of animals in the bush was enough to get their attention. They didn't have any major goal other than to reunite like the rest of the family. Anna was tired from the constant walking much more than the average person through her health problems, she needed to rest. Veredi knew that if they didn't do it now then on the next run the woman would simply fail. However, they could not stay in the middle of the street given the danger. He could see the pain on her face with each step.

  "Can you make it?" He asked, stopping. "If it's necessary I can carry you."

  He laughed, allowing himself to relax the atmosphere.

  "I have to give." She stifled a grimace while putting on a stony face.

  "We'll find some place to wait, then set out to find the rest."

  Anna nodded, keeping a close eye on her surroundings as if she expected her family to return unexpectedly. Being separated from her children and the unknown condition of the woman's husband made her paranoid. She was afraid that the next time she looked at any of the dead it would be the scariest sight she would ever see. Her family.

  The setting sun warmed them for the last time that day. They decided to stop at the nearest house, located on the street itself. The corpses could still be seen on the horizon, far behind them. They walked slowly toward them, but not necessarily to them. The distance was too great for the dead to notice them. However, they did not want to play with fate and hurriedly made their way towards the house. The gate was open, but it was blocked by a corpse. Tarhos approached, at the time waiting a moment to make sure he was definitely dead and he was. Being behind his back, he grabbed him, pulling him away so that the corpse fell to the ground opening the passage to the house for them. Anna went in first, feeling much safer in the fenced lot than in the open. The man was also about to go, but as the corpse fell, the dead man's face was revealed, with a bullet mark on his forehead. Tarhos was sure that this could not have been done by the Kaczmarek family before their appearance because he knew that the family had not had any firearms before. To top it off, Veredi looked at the corpse, kneeling down on one knee beside it. The corpse was reasonably fresh, he could confirm with his medical experience. It could have been about two or three days. However, there was something else, something that did not give him peace of mind. In the face of a world where death is the order of the day, the condition of a corpse doesn't matter at all, but in this case it was clear to him that the man with the bullet in his head had been shot alive and not dead.

  "Anna, wait!" coming to these conclusions, he called out to the woman, who grabbed the door handle. She managed to swing the door open and turned toward him with a questioning expression on her face.

  "What? I'm not going to just stand here." She looked at Tarhos, closing the gate and running toward her.

  "Something has happened here. Something terrible." He looked around the area.

  "Terrible things have been happening since the beginning of the epidemic."

  "Yes, but here..."

  Anna felt a cold touch on her forearm. Out of fear she almost screamed and the stress made her unable to move. Through the gap between the frame and the door a corpse began to squeeze through, which the woman tried to block with the weight of her own body holding the door. Veredi momentarily moved to her aid. With a quick step, he ran up to the door and hit it with a kick. The door hit the zombie in the head and hard, he slid down the frame to the floor and Veredi hit him again with the door, but this time with his hands. He did it again. And another. Until the undead's skull was considerably distorted and chunks of brain began to flow out of the punch wounds.

  - No... I won't be able to... - the woman knelt down catching her breath. Her legs trembled with terror and her heart beat hard in her chest.

  At the same time, Veredi heard footsteps inside the building. The wooden floor creaked, the movements were chaotic, irregular so they were certainly corpses. He opened the door wide to see them and indeed. The two stiff headed towards the man and woman through the noise made by the door. They had neither the patience nor the time to look for another place to rest. Tarhos had to act. He crossed the doorframe shortening the distance to keep Anna out of the way. The first to approach at arm's length, the man caught his cold hand, which the dead man used to reach for Veredi and then grabbed him by his dirty shirt to push the corpse toward the adjacent room, into the kitchen. The corpse made quite a noise as it hit the cabinet, the dishes left behind fell on it shattering. Tarhos quickly approached another zombie and punched it in the head with his fist. It was not effective so he repeated the blow, which brought the corpse to the ground. This was not difficult for him by the dead man's body mass, which was small. He had little time as the former was caving in from the kitchen. Veredi waded nimbly into the depths of the building looking for anything to fight. At this point he was missing his lost Colt, but he had to do without it, he had no choice. He looked around hurriedly, nothing seemed useful at first glance, but at one point he spotted a broom lying in the corner of the room. He grabbed it, bending down, and at that moment the corpse grabbed his hand and brought its jaw close to his shoulder. The man instinctively pulled his hand back the other way avoiding the bite. With his other hand he held the man's head, meanwhile improving his grip on the broomstick, and suddenly, violently swung miraculously past his teeth and struck the corpse with the broomstick shaft. The stick broke just under the brush, the undead was pushed back a meter away. Taking advantage of the situation, Veredi drove the broken, sharp part of the stick straight into the corpse's eye, piercing all the way to the brain and then quickly pulled out the stick and undercut the other zombie's legs with it, causing it to fall. The zombie, lying on the ground, tried to get up but was knocked out in a split second by the same method as his predecessor.

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  Veredi dropped the broom that landed by his right foot and leaned against the wall exhausted. He didn't even have the strength to stand on his feet so he simply slid down the wall directly to the floor. Apparently the meager access to food had its effect on the man's form. He was tiring quickly and lacked strength. This also translated into fitness. He himself was in great shock that he had declined so much physically over the past month. It's true that he was old, but despite this he was still a trained agent for a long time, with the difference that his work no longer had any meaning. He breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the massacred corpse. He didn't get up, though one thing caught his attention once again. Like the corpse outside, these too had visible bullet marks. It reached him then that, after all, the man who had done this could still be in the area. He rose quickly, listening to see if perhaps a commotion could be heard somewhere in the house. However, there was silence. He heard nothing. His fears did not go away, and in fact intensified as he examined the corpse carefully, kneeling by it. In both of his professions, he had come into contact with corpses more than once as well as their decomposition or dissection. He looked at them with an expert eye. As before, they were killed about three days ago. The woman's corpse had visible strangulation marks on her neck, broken fingers on both hands along with her right wrist. The other, who was shorter and much younger, had quite a few stab wounds on his body. None of this, however, was the immediate cause of death. They had died from gunshots.

  Anna rushed into the room clearly troubled by the silence and Veredi, who had not been out for a long time. Finding him alive she calmed down. They exchanged glances and there was silence, which was broken by the man getting up on his feet trying not to lose his balance. He had a dilemma in his mind whether to tell the woman about the possible threat however, he wasn't sure if it would make sense to put her through additional stress, of which there was little anyway. In the end, he decided to keep it to himself but remained extremely cautious.

  "I will take the corpses outside." As he said so he did. He grabbed the first one by the legs and dragged him across the floor to the front door.

  Anna looked at him, not really knowing what to do with herself. She felt the urge to help but, well, she abhorred dead bodies as well as wandering alone in a house that had not been fully explored. Tarhos looked at her noticing the sight.

  "Are you okay?" He asked.

  "Why are you so calm? We lost Judyta and my husband. We lost our children!" she pulled further on a topic completed some time ago. She did not want to talk about it, but she felt that silence would not help her organize her thoughts all the more.

  "I don't know Emil very well, but I believe that he will manage and protect little Kaja. And as for Aurora..." he put the corpse on the lawn a few meters from the door, the man's hand wandered reflexively to his pocket in search of cigarettes. "...She is a child but an unusual one. Besides, she has a gun. And it's possible that she clung to Dawid. They'll be fine. We should focus on how to get the group back together."

  "This will be difficult. Everyone has fled in other directions." He replied the woman.

  Veredi took out his lighter, which was on the point of finishing. He tried to start a fire once and a second time. The third. Only after a few times did the lighter work.. The man enlisted to let the smoke out of his mouth a moment later. He sighed quietly, he needed this.

  "Anyway, we don't have too many options." He raised his head upward along with his finger, turning his attention to the setting sun. "We need to spend the night here."

  Tarhos and Anna continued their conversation and carrying out the corpses while the dead previously left behind finally made up the distance. The man managed to see the zombies before they saw the two survivors. He pulled an unaware Anna by the arm running immediately to the house to hide. The zombies did not head their way as they completely lost sight of them, giving the survivors plenty of time to look around peacefully inside. Veredi was still aware of the risks involved in staying here but they had no other option. There could have been even more in the other houses and it was extremely dangerous to go out on the streets at this point without any weapons. Anna was so afraid that she didn't leave the man's side when he checked the rooms. When the first floor and the first floor were finally thoroughly examined, Tarhos and Anna were able to sit down and relax. They stayed side by side in silence for most of the remaining time until evening. The woman felt terrible being away from the children. Her companion did the same, although he tried to think rationally at that moment. He felt responsible for the woman, who apparently couldn't manage on her own. He owed it to all of them for giving him and Aurora shelter.

  They decided to wait until tomorrow. The best option they knew was to gather their forces and wait a few hours. They expected that the corpses would disperse in that time and the road to the Kaczmarek house would be clear. They hoped the rest would think the same way they did.

  Anna fell asleep. Veredi, meanwhile, stood guard. Drowsy he wasn't much and he wouldn't have been able to sleep a wink in this situation either. Thoughts were buzzing in his head. Somewhere out there Aurora, Kaja, Emil and Dawid are trying to survive. At least, he tried to believe that they were trying and were not already on the other side. It was hard for him to keep the faith when he saw the numbers of the horde. They were not dozens or hundreds but perhaps more than a thousand living corpses walking together like an army. Tarhos and Anna were very lucky that only a few of them managed to follow them. The man tried to come up with a plan but it was difficult because he did not know the area as well as at least his companion. He had an idea in his head, but a starting point was required for execution. A place that made the most sense to go while assuming that everyone would think the same. In their favor was the fact that everyone wants to find each other so there was a good chance it could work. It was the only hope of regrouping. So it remained for him to wait for sunrise. It was quiet. The longer he lingered in it, the longer his thoughts didn't disturb that silence, the more he felt uneasy for some unknown reason. He sighed protractedly feeling the first signs of fatigue. He had to be alert however his eyes were beginning to close on their own. He gave in to this feeling and fell asleep. He dreamed of his wife and daughter. This was additionally vexing for him, mentally he never recovered from this loss, he could only suppress his emotions deep inside.

  He woke up some time later seeing the light reflected in the window. He got up from the floor at once, creeping under it. He looked out cautiously and saw the silhouette of a person, judging by his build it was a tall, fairly well-built man. He was lighting his way with a small flashlight. Tarhos looked at him more closely, trying to see his face. Unfortunately, he couldn't see much. Preferring not to take any chances, he quietly ran over to Anna and woke her up. Waking up suddenly scared, Tarhos covered her mouth to prevent her from making any sound. She didn't quite understand what was going on, she thought of the most obvious threat i.e. zombies, but it would be pointless then to run away when they didn't make any sound. Nevertheless, she went with Tarhos up the stairs to the floor. The staircase awkwardly creaked which made them nervous. They had little choice and even less time. Veredi didn't know who it was or how much time they would spend here so staying in obvious places made little sense. He looked around the corridor looking out the escape window, but instead of a way out he spotted a trapdoor in the ceiling.

  "Attic?" The light broke through the glass again, stronger this time. "It's a good place to hide."

  "From whom?" She replied in a trembling voice seeing the light.

  The man didn't answer, he grabbed the bar and opened the trapdoor quickly while lowering the stairs down, which they then both ran up. Tarhos closed the door behind them, hearing only the pull of the handle on the first floor. They were safe, for now. Veredi stepped back slowly. His gaze met Anna's terrified stare, who wanted to alert the man by pointing her finger behind him. Before Tarhos realized what was going on he bumped his back into something and a blue hand grabbed his face. He immediately jumped back, taking the hand from his face and turned around. It was dark, but enough to see a hanging corpse hung from a beam. It was a sad sight considering that it was not an adult. The dead boy groaned after hitting the man, and began to stretch his hands in their direction. The sight caused a quiet lament from Anna, who still resented being left alone with the children. Tarhos, on the other hand, already knew that it was going to be a long night.